Cydonian Monk

Voodoo. Uses an "EJ" joint as a pivot for the gantry arm (small tank surrounded by cubic struts), and gets ejected from the craft by a decoupler and a small, mostly empty sepratron. The whole tower assembly is launch-clamped down with the clamps in a higher staging level. Cosmetic only, but looks cool.

Today? Today I spent entirely too much time building a 100% stock launch tower and retracting gantry arm. This is entirely EJ_SA's fault (and lifted from his design). And entirely awesome.

Ok, I'll bite. Besides, there was nobody from Houston on the map, which just looked wrong. (Though my pin, much like me, technically isn't in Houston, much like NASA isn't in Houston.... excluding the NBL, which is up at Ellington.)

The Very-High-End ones are expensive, but price-wise they're generally competitive with their non-Apple equivalents. I remember spec-ing out a PC with a 5k display and other equivalent components to one of the Retina iMacs and found the Apple one was cheaper than building on your own if you stuck with the lowest-end options of the parts that are user-upgradeable. (And then buy your own RAM/disk/etc, the price of which was included in my estimate.) The real killer of the 5k iMac is having the card directly wired to the display, something almost unheard of in the PC world. Sure, it limits repairability, but the performance it gives is remarkable. If you need it. There's also something to be said for their looks. The lower-end MacBooks are borderline theft in terms of pricing. The real reason I bought my MacBook Pro was because I knew the hardware was 100% Intel, which at the time all the drivers for were 100% open source. (There's now a binary blob in Intel's graphics drivers....) I do keep a Gentoo install on a third partition, but only for maintenance purposes. (I don't even have X.org configured.) Going forward I'm not sure if I'd buy another MacBookPro, even with the ecosystem buy-in. (A MacMini or a small MacBookAir would let me do all the photo-editing things I need.) Things like the Purism Librem are looking very enticing.

A Different Kind of Eclipse in LKO....

Happy New Year! Let's shake off last night's headaches and get back into the action.... The Six Moons of Kerbin (and that Milbas thing....) Lore has it that Kerbin once had only one moon: The Mün. That was certainly the case when Thomlock left the surface on his 95-year trek. Shortly after his ascent into interplanetary space a second moon was captured: the oft-misunderstood Minmus. And so Kerbin remained for many decades: a planet with two moons. "So why are there now seven?" "Six." Thomlock ran his finger down the list one last time, naming them as he went. "Minmus, Thomlock, Mün, Orange Julius, Milbas, Nelsey, Billy Bob's Cajun Spice Shack in the Sky. That's seven." "Six. Milbas doesn't count, and we just call that last one 'The Spice Moon.' Way shorter." He scratched at the back of his head, confused by the soft grey hairs that had replaced his once luxurious mane. More confused by this strange 'engineer' that was standing next to him. Macfred. What an odd name.... "Ok, so why doesn't Milbas count? And why is one of them named after me?" "Because you're dead. And famous. And famously dead. That moon showed up sometime after you were shot into space, so maybe somebody decided it must be you. Or your ship. Truth is I don't know. Nobody knows because nobody remembers anything about the old times. But everybody remembers you. Thomlock Kerman. Launched into space atop a box of exploding oranges and three cans of boom!" "So I guess Nelsey didn't make it." "Yeah, bummer about him. No clue what happened, but it must've been bad if they named a moon after him." "So, Milbas then?" "We don't like to talk about Milbas. For years and years people kept confusing Milbas with Dres. Tiny speck in the sky, nothing to write home about. So they demoted it from 'moon' to 'moonoid.' Nobody likes to say moonoid though, so we just call it a rock. Same thing almost happened with the Orange Moon, people kept mistaking it for Duna. Pretty easy to do since it's in a polar orbit and isn't orange." "Then why's it called the Orange Moon?" "Corporate sponsorship." "Ah." Thomlock slipped the laminated list of moons back into the gift shop's rack of printed ephemera. The look he got from the shopkeep, a look that said 'this ain't a library ya cheap so-n-so,' almost made him pull it back out and buy it. Yet he was the famously dead Thomlock so he just brushed it off and followed Macfred towards the exit. "What has this got to do with me anyway?" The shopkeep moved to intercept them and Thomlock instinctively reached for his wallet. Then he recognized who the merchant was. "The two of you are going to visit these six moons. That's what it has to do with you." Gene Kerman, Flight Director and part-time shopkeeper at the KSC gift shop. "And soon." -- Nitrogen T-4 By 'soon' Gene meant 'in the next 20 minutes.' The technicians had Macfred and Thomlock suited up and ready to fly before they'd even left the gift shop. (Turns out the souvenir flight suits are identical to those worn by the crews.) The trip out to the pad still took an hour, but there were rumours that somebody was working on a tower to help alleviate such headaches. The T-class Nitrogen they were crammed into was more than capable of reaching the Spice Moon, which was in a clean 200km orbit. Though still limited to 32-bit, NT-4 did allow for multitasking by crew members and used the new shell developed way back in 95. And it included double the snacks for double the crew. Wernher had also asked them to check out "Thing A" up close on their return. Macfred was just happy to be in space again. The second stage was nearly enough to drop them into their target orbit, and it cut out just moments before the launch script was going to end. Thomlock balked at the thought of letting a computer control their launch, but as he was apparently the only "pilot" in the agency he guessed it must be a good thing. The Spice Moon, or "Billy Bob's Cajun Spice Shack in the Sky," turned out to be something of a curiosity. While nobody in the Kerbal Astronomical Society seriously considered the captured asteroid to be a "Moon", the press and the populace had been misled for long enough that there was no point in fighting. So everyone just called it a moon. Not that anyone remembered its capture. The double set of claws with docking ports were a dead giveaway though. Once their speeds were matched and the N-T4 was in a safe station-keeping position, Macfred jumped out of the orbital module and went for a short walk. No way to tell if anyone had ever set foot on this moon, but he aimed to be the first. "First kerbal on the Cajun Spice Shack in the Sky." (Though he guessed this Billy-Bob character might have been the actual first, whoever that was.) The rock and dirt samples he grabbed helped their understanding of materials science advance tremendously. He resisted the urge to "beam down" the samples using the radio and instead kept them tucked safely inside the sample containers of the N-T4's descent module. The two spacekerbs floated there in their tin can, not far above the moon, and witnessed one of the weirdest eclipses to ever be seen by a kerbals. (The Spice Moon, while large as far as asteroids go, was not large enough to cause an eclipse on the ground. Doubly so with its fast orbit.) Astrological Event over, the two kerbals backed away from the Spice Moon and made their way into a lower orbit. Time to go visit "Thing A" with the hopes of unlocking some of its secrets. -- Thing A "I don't think The Boss is right about this." Thomlock kicked the ship around to shine their spotlight on a new spot on the hull. They had been passing their meagre lights over the hull of the station for the last ten minutes, having arrived during the dead of night. "How so?" "Well, I don't think it's some simple refueling station. The docking arms are too close together for that. No, I think it's a shipyard of some sort." "A shipyard? What's the point though? It's kinda tiny inside here." "C'mon kid, think outside the triangle. Literally. The ship isn't built inside the superstructure, it's built _around_ it." "Oh." The gears were visibly turning in Macfred's head as the immense size of Thing A set in. And then the sun slipped over the limb of Kerbin. "Oh my." Macfred unstrapped from his seat and moved into the orbital module. "If you're right, then any beast born here would be huge." "Very. And most likely cylindrical, allowing its crews to walk inside instead of floating around, like us." "Hey, aren't you just a pilot? Where'd you get ideas like this?" "Where I'm from kid all kerbals are pilots. And scientists. And engineers. And everything in between." And unlucky, it would seem. Four of the first six confirmed lost, and he himself stranded in space for nearly a century. "A kerbal's choice of work and life wasn't limited like it is today." Macfred had finished suiting up. "I'm going over to check it out. Maybe there's still something of interest inside." Unfortunately the inside of Thing A proved to be just as mysterious as the outside. There was nothing in the way of a central computer, little in the way of printed material, and only a few hints as to what was where. In the end Macfred just grabbed a few scraps of paper and made his way back over to the N-T4. Not wanting to repeat the mistakes made by Sieta, Thomlock moved the ship into a 71km circular orbit before attempting the reentry burn. Reentry from Thing A's orbit was within the T-series's design parameters, but the elder kerbal was the senior member of the flight crew and decided caution was always better than a flaming death. The Nitrogen's service and orbital modules were split off just as they slipped out of the intense night of Kerbin's shadow, and they landed safely in the badlands of the Central Continent. Another successful flight complete! While there was no award granted for "first multi-kerbal crew," everybody back at the space center chipped in and bought a huge party platter. Macfred and Thomlock snacked well into the night and the next day. Navigation: Next Page

Very nice. Only time I've landed Kerbals on the Moon in RSS was using the pre-built FASA Apollo 11.... So I skipped all the design work. Nice job.

0c +/- 0.1c. Or something in that neighborhood. Nine years in the freezer, sheesh.

It came down to application support, my chosen Linux distro being in meltdown mode, and cross-device integration (the ecosystem). While I could find Linux equivalents for most of what I wanted to do, there wasn't (and still isn't) a good equivalent for photography tools like Lightroom (excluding the cloud-based version which didn't exist and still isn't something I can use). And many mainstream software products support Mac and Windows, but not Linux. (ex: Rosetta Stone.) I gave up on Windows entirely in 2003, and had little desire to go back (though I have for games alone). OS-X, as a true UNIX, was something I understood and something maleable. Ultimately it was MobileMe and the first iPad that sealed it, as finally the vision outlined in "The Mother of All Demos" was a reality - all of my data could be easilly accessed from any device, and any device could stream to any other. To this day I still use my 2nd-gen Apple TV as an occasional second display or for streaming from apps. Less frequently I use the iPad as a portable display, having remotely played games like KSP, Civilization V, and Dwarf Fortress while lounging on the patio. That, and I was tired of 'emerge --world -NDup' breaking everything on my desktop.

Thanks! There'll likely be some interplanetary stuff coming early in the New Year. Need to build out the communications network first. I've been using Linux both personally and professionally since 1997, along with regular UNIXes of various stripes, so it's working out nicely. That particular "regex golf" was done through vim on my MacBook in OS-X.... I've all but stopped using Linux as a desktop OS as The Year of the Linux Desktop is never coming, but I'll hapilly keep using it for embedded devices and servers. (And on my old netbook, which still kinda has a working build of Gentoo and X.org/Gnome 2.x on it.)

Thanks. I'm not entirely certain Persistent Rotation is the root cause of that issue (because of how it tracks angular momentum by vessel ID), but it was certainly the one making it tough to dock. Baile Speir is old enough and has been through enough conversions that there's undoubtedly some values not set right. (Built in 0.20.2, ~15 versions ago, though I didn't load the save in any 1.0 prior to 1.0.4.) There's also a very slim chance I messed up a UID or some bit of ephermis. When I bulk-converted all the old saves, I used a regex replace in vim to add the relevant number of seconds to each flight's start time (based on the total elapsed time of the previous save). That required a two-step conversion, the second step of which _might_ have pulled a number from some random field and borked it a bit. Doubtful though, as that'd likely prevent the save from loading. Next I've gotta sit down and see if I can hack Kelgee Station to get rid of its docking port ghosts. That's an old old bug caused by a very broken old version of Module Manager and an equally broken old KSP.

It was an otherwise ordinary morning. Koffee was brewing in the break room; snacks and pastries were lined up, ready for the grubbing. The Boss had walked to the conference room, where a day full of long, boring, grown-up-world meetings were scheduled. Wernher was running through the halls screaming about some piece of kit he'd just "invented". The interns had blown up a corner of the VAB. Just a regular day at the space center. At least it _was_ just a regular day until Mortimer, the agency's accountant, started ranting about some conspiracy theory regarding the upcoming launch. A new habitat module was being sent up to Baile Speir along with a Carbon Dioxide scrubber and a Water Purifier. It was the water purifier that had set him off. "Fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous plot we have ever had to face! They're diluting our bodily essences! Think of the children!!" His ranting soon turned to quick, threatening movements and absolute screaming, the most agitated anyone could recall of Mortimer. The manic ravings became a chaotic chase when two "caretakers" showed up with a straight jacket. They eventually corralled the elder bookkeep in the corner of the VAB, grabbed just minutes before he hurled a Hydrogen canister at the payload for the upcoming launch. It was suggested Sieta's insanity might be contagious. Quarantines were openly considered. The Boss just shrugged it off and told them to accelerate the timetable for the launch. -- Fluorine 1 The agency's first official space station had started when the Carbon 5 and Carbon 6 docked for the second time. (Or so say the World's Firsters.) Both had subsequently reentered, so technically the Fluorine 1 would be the second such station. Originally designed to compliment the Lab Module of Kelgee Station, this craft would instead serve to complete the USI contract for expanding Baile Speir. Capable of housing four kerbals, the station also included recyclers for water and air, and tanks for waste products waiting to be purified. Only slightly more massive than the Oxygen supply craft, the Fluorine module was still within the capabilities of the LV-04 Sonata launch vehicle. Another perfect launch, another quick rendezvous. The Fluorine 1 arrived at the station in less than one orbit, and was quickly making its way to the only open docking port at the station. And that's when Verly noticed the problem. "The wrong end is facing the station." "Say again, Baile Speir?" "The wrong end of the Fluorine module is facing the station. The air and water scrubbers need to be away from the hard dock so that crews can get into the crew compartments." In all the bustle of the morning's chase, it would seem crews accidentally installed the payload _upside down_ on the LV-04. Ooooops. No problem, as it would just require a few extra steps to install. After docking, the Fluorine 1's orbital stage was decoupled and deorbited. Verly then piloted her Nitrogen craft and docked to the Fluorine module, pulled it away from the station. She then remote piloted the Oxygen 1, which docked to the other end of the Fluorine. [And that's when the game wigged out. Something I've only ever seen occur when The Claw was in play - the controls for the station were linked to the controls for the Fluorine + Oxygen pair. Attempts to rotate one would rotate both, making docking impossible. Eventually I found the cause to be Persistent Rotation, though I'm not sure why. I removed the dll, finished to docking, and put it back.] Following some issues with the Oxygen's flight computer, Verly moved both it and the Fluorine module back into position, now properly oriented. She then redocked her Nitrogen craft and went to set up the new hab module. Upgrade complete! Contract complete! Yet without a science lab, the station was still not very useful. The main computer had been destroyed by decades of hard radiation, and the various printed documents provided little insight into the station beyond simple operations. If they wanted to research these stations, they'd need to go back to Kelgee or find another. They might be in luck. Navigation: Next Post

Distant Object Enhancement will render ships up to a certain distance, and show them as points of light beyond that. Not sure if TST has anything built separate, suspect not. I'll give it a test this weekend.

I have, and it's nicely done, but as I rarely ever get beyond the orbit of Duna I doubt I'd get much use from it. Maybe later. Yeah, our forum software is a bit wacko at times. Distant Object Enhancement is already installed, and is one of my "must have" mods. To the point where I often recompile it early when new versions of KSP are released. (Though the changes coming with 1.1 may preclude that.) Not sure if the OPM planets are set up for it by default, but should I install that I'd make sure the configs are there. Can't say I've heard of Duskers before, though something at the back of my mind is saying Scott Manley reviewed it at some point so I probably really have and just forgot it. Looks interesting.

Oooh. I wasn't aware that was still around. I've got the CactEye stuff installed (though more for some of the small parts it provides than the telescopes), and the HullCam telescopes, just hadn't launched any yet. Think I'll toss the TST stuff back in again and give it a spin. Thanks!

While I've considered writing a mod like this in the past (more of a space race mod, where you can find your opponent's ships and stations in orbit), everything "found" in this save is something I've built in the past. In the case of Baile Speir, it was built in July of 2013.

Thank you. Nitrogen is mostly Tantares, with a few stock parts and the fins from Taerobee. Other parts include the kOS computer and the Engineer module.

The real danger is if I do a Reuseable, Economy-model Nitrogen. I already get enough NREs from the game as is without adding more......

A Little More Nitrogen After some consideration, The Boss decided to push forward with the contract to expand Baile Speir. The second Nitrogen mission, originally intended to be a second adapter for Kelgee Station, was retasked and sent to Baile Speir instead. A few small improvements were made to the spacecraft to account for issues discovered during the previous mission, such as the positioning of the RCS ports, but otherwise the Nitrogen A-2 was identical to the N-A1. Macfred, first kerbal in space and the only 0-star astronaut left in the corps, launched to meet the station just moments before sunrise. Even then the launch was a few minutes late, with the craft placed into an orbit somewhat behind the target. (The small dot over the VAB in the above shot is Baile Speir.) Two orbits later and Macfred was making his approach to his new home in the sky. The station had only one open docking port when Macfred arrived, so some rearranging was needed before more modules could be sent up. The easiest way to free up two of the mid-sized docking ports was to move the communications modules to the ends of the solar array trusses. As it so happened, both of these modules were autonomous probes, and moving them was quite easy. Macfred kept two of the station's six solar arrays closed after he moved the communications pods, more to reduce heat intake than any specific reason. Unlike Kelgee Station, Baile Speir was already warm. Not warm enough to cause any serious danger, but warm enough that radiators would need to be one of the early things they installed. With the two upper docking ports open, Macfred was ready to move onto the next chore - relocating the two "Obair" ships that were currently docked at the lower ports. The upper ports were closed off from the rest of the station thanks to the large monoprop tank, so an EVA would be needed to return after the docking. And there was the small problem of both ships having zero flight electronics. No flight computer, no stability control, nothing. Not the easiest docking ever performed, but soon that was over. Macfred's two spacewalks earned the first astronaut his first astronaut star. (To be awarded upon returning to Kerbin.) -- All that shuffling opened up two more docking ports on the habitable parts of the station. The planned expansion module would use a normal docking port, but to attach the life support supplies the station would need another of the Tantares small androgynous docking ports. (As it was the station had enough life support to keep one kerbal alive for almost 30 days, or 30 kerbals alive for 1 day.) Verly was sent up with the Nitrogen A-3 a short while later. Once the second Engineer was aboard the two set about preparing the station for the new life support module. They only had a few days to get everything ready, as Macfred would have to undock so the supplies craft could use his docking port. His reentry was one of the most precise to date, with his landing coming within a few hundred meters of the space center. They waited until morning for his 1-star graduation ceremony. Thankfully no World's Firsters showed up with a plaque and prize money. -- And a Dash of Oxygen The air to breathe was launched atop yet another LV-04 Sonata launcher. The Oxygen series was similar in construction to the Nitrogen, using everything down to the same service module. The three food bags, one water bag, and plethora of oxygen tanks were the obvious exception. Once the first Oxygen craft had finished its rendezvous, Verly remotely guided it in to the docking port. The station could now support one kerbals for more than two years. If they had some way to clean the water and oxygen, then one kerbal could be locked in orbit for nearly five years. (More than long enough to hold them until a transfer to Dres was ready....) With that done the stage was set for the arrival of the station's first expansion module. Navigation: Next Page

Far, far worse than 18th Century sanitariums. Kerbals send their cracked comrades to Dres.

A Nitrogen One To move forward with reclaiming "Thing B," the agency needed to first bring it up to modern standards. And by "modern" they meant "heat, air, and perhaps a bit of water." The first Nitrogen mission (Nitrogen A-1) would help reach that goal by installing a large docking adapter and reconfiguring the station slightly. Nitrogen was the next step forward in spaceflight. Developed with modularity in mind, each Nitrogen craft would include a capsule or one or two kerbals, an "orbital module" so they could safely snack in space without getting crumbs in the controls, and a "service module" to get all the above into space in the first place. To loft this new mass into orbit, Wernher and the interns developed a "new" launch vehicle: The LV-04 Sonata. Not really a completely new vehicle, it discarded the four Gustave V-2 strap-on boosters for four copies of the core stage from the LV-03. A bit of extra power on the upper stage and it was good enough to handle all three variants of the Nitrogen. For reasons of crew safety, the capsule and orbital module were attached to a "launch escape system." It was assumed this would pull the soft, mushy crew away from an exploding rocket without turning them into jelly. Just because kerbals are fungible doesn't mean they should be fungi. One element of the Nitrogen vehicle enjoyed by all crews, both flight and ground, was the new onboard computer system. Unlike previous vehicles, the kOS module is now standard and included in the service module of the orbiter, allowing for all operations while in flight to be controlled by scripts. (Scripts which are being retooled to run from shared libraries.) In addition, all Nitrogen-class vehicles include onboard telemetry thanks to some overworked interns and an Engineer 7500 module. Though it's likely more variations will appear in the future, today's Nitrogen mission was conducted using the A-type, A for Adapter. Engineer Sieta Kerman was sent up with the docking adapter to hopefully bring "Thing B" back to a useable state. The docking adapter part of the craft would then be left behind at the station for future craft to use, allowing them to include the smaller, androgynous docking adapter developed by Tantares. Other variants include the C-type, which is identical to the A-type excluding the docking ports between the return and habitat modules, and the T-type, T for Twin, which can ferry two astronauts into orbit. Superior mission planning from the snack-and-coffee-fueled interns at the space center meant the Nitrogen A-1 rendezvoused with Thing B just as both craft exited into the morning sunlight after less than one orbit. The Boss was most pleased. Still uncertain as to the docking capabilities of the flight computer, Sieta took over and guided the small craft in. (That, and because the programmer kerbs hadn't actually written a docking program. When run the docking program just blinked a few lights and bleeped as though an error had occurred. The error of course being the rest of the code didn't exist.) And with that, they were successfully and safely docked to a decades-old space station. A quick inspection of the interior revealed a few micro-meteorite damaged sections that would need to be sealed off; A few sections where water had both frozen and sublimated, resulting in all manner of burst pipes; And a few sections that are best not described. The bulk of the ship was cold. Very cold. Even without radiators it wasn't near to overheating, with the internal part temperature averaging 152 Kelvin. No doubt it would heat up as the atmosphere was pumped back into it and crews started living in it once more, but for now it was too cold to touch. Radiators were high on the list of additions. The inspection also revealed that station's full name: "Kelgee Station." "And I think it's haunted." "Uuuuh, say again Nitrogen? Did you say, haunted?" "Yes. Haunted. I'm hearing weird noises up here. Gives me the creeps." Wernher shook his head at the CapCom, who radioed back to politely tell Sieta to keep a lid on the crazy talk. "These engineers and their crazy superstitions." Meanwhile Wernher and the interns set about deciding how best to bring the station up to survivable levels. After some review they agreed to move the Laboratory Module from its current position near the "ventral" (or top / solar-panel) side of the station to a position closer to the docking adapter installed by Sieta. And they were in luck, as the ancient construction bot used to first assemble the station still worked, still had antennas, and had nearly a full tank of monoprop. It was no problem to have it wrangle the lab module and its connected science pod down to the dorsal node of the station. And that's when the fun began. Sieta sealed off the rest of the station, pumped the atmosphere up in the lab and the hab connected to it, and went to disconnect the science pod. (With the intent of moving the pod somewhere else and using that docking port for another Nitrogen A-type adapter.) She pulled the release lever for the docked pod and instructed the bot to pull it away. The science pod was having nothing of the sort. Releasing it caused a loud shriek to echo through the station. A metal-rending, soul-grinding sound that shook even the kerbals on the ground. The science pod and the construction bot (Gerty. Its name was Gerty....) shot off into the kosmos, leaving behind the wasted ruin of everything everyone had ever known or loved. And then Kerbin started to disappear, along with most of the station. Chunk by precious chunk. All that remained was Sieta, the laboratory module, and a strange sense that this is what would happen if she pulled the release lever for the science pod. That this is what had happened the last half-dozen times she tried. "Cursed, not haunted. Cursed. And I'm leaving." Mission control erupted into a cacophony of noise as everyone scrambled to put down their celebratory snacks and get back to their stations. "Nitrogen, Flight. Did you say 'leaving'?" "Yes, that's right, leaving. The station's already named after one dead kerbal. I'm not sticking around to see if it's him or some other shade that's cursed the place, and I'm certainly not waiting here long enough to have one named after me. My official engineering evaluation of this place is that it's haunted and we should hurl it into deep space. With lava." Sure enough, the station cameras and the shipboard sensors both showed Sieta had undocked from the station and was quickly backing away, only 2 days into a 5 day mission. Gene scrambled to find something else for her to do while still in orbit. Wasn't there a contract somewhere here? Something from that USI outfit? Ah, there it was. Thing C "N-A1, Flight. Since you're in such a hurry to leave we wondered if you might be willing to check out a second target for us. Something called 'Sky Home.' The toy rocket company we bought those early experiments from wants us to expand it, and I'd like to know if it's worthwhile." "Are there any ghosts? Or zombies? No, I can handle zombies. Just no ghosts, ok?" And so Sieta set out for Baile Speir, one of the first true Sky Homes. "Thing C" as it were, was in a lower orbit than Kelgee (100km vs 130km). Being slightly behind the two of them, the Nitrogen A-1 needed to kick itself into an even higher orbit and wait for the station to catch up. A little over an orbit later and she had a good view of it. "Ok flight, I've got a nice picture of it now. Smaller than that last wreck, and a fairly modular construction. Lots of little segments it looks like. There are still two ships here." "Well, you said you could handle space zombies...." "Where did all the crews go? Three seats in each of these big ships, only one in that weird bird-like thing back at the other. If they were all full, then we're missing ten kerbals. Wernher or any of the brain trust have an idea?" Gene looked over to the chief designer, who had visibly perked up at the mention of his name. "Ja! There are the tales of the mighty kraken, who cracks open the ships of unsuspecting kerbals and eats them, slowly. Munch, a munch, a munch, like that. Their tormented souls can be heard screaming all the way from its lair in the..." The line went dead when Gene pulled the plug on Wernher's headset. "Ah, sorry about that N-A1. No, Wernher most certainly does NOT have an idea as to what's eating the missing crews. Please take a look inside and advise us on its condition." The condition was remarkable considering its age. A cursory check of the exterior showed a number of communications devices (Sieta suspected this was more of a comms relay than a space station), and no substantial damage. She forced a few of the antennas open, hoping at least one of them would connect to the network and start sending data. She poked her head inside and was surprised to see the sensors in the airlock reporting a full atmosphere. No signs of a crew, and no signs of some violent encounter with a giant space squid either. None of the computer equipment worked, but some of the printed documentation had dates on them that gave her a idea as to the station's age. 79 years, 79 days. Really, really old. Already a bit spooked, Sieta decided she didn't want to spend another two days in space. So the next time around she boosted the little Nitrogen into high Kerbin orbit (officially becoming the first Kerbal to enter high orbit following Thomlock's return), and burned at apoapsis to set up her reentry. That was a mistake. The Carbon-series capsule used by the Nitrogen A and C types was only designed for reentry from low orbit. Likewise, it was only intended for short reentries, not long, grueling burns such as Sieta had experienced with the Carbon 4. This time, not only was the capsule enduring a long, arduous reentry, but it was also returning at a considerably higher rate of speed. So once again all the ablator burned off. And without ablator, the heat had to go somewhere. By the time the craft had slowed to under 1600m/s, the internal temperature was well over 400 Kelvin. Several things inside the capsule had melted, including the emergency radio Sieta needed to call in the recovery team. Somehow the parachutes had survived, the drogue chute pulling free just as the internal temperature crested 417 Kelvin. Sieta jumped out when the capsule was still a few meters above the ground. The last thing she wanted was it to roll over onto the door, blocking her only route of escape from the oven. Luckily the craft bounced to a stop just a short way down the hill, upright, hot enough to start a small grass fire. Again. She hoped the grass fire would be enough for the recovery team to find her. What she _didn't_ expect, and what no one at the space agency could explain, was why and how the World's First representative found her, and why he was giving her an award for "First return to the surface from orbit." And that's how Sieta lost her mind. 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They mentioned the system by name (Hosnian) and then later the capitol planet (Hosnian Prime). I think. Definitely mentioned the system name. WookiePedia has the details on it, but it wasn't well covered by the movie. (Though the whole "how did Han et al see that when they're halfway out in the middle of nowhere" thing badly broke my immersion during that part of the movie, so....)

No, we didn't. Not really. Other than the "business as usual; that's so far away; what's a Republic/Empire?" vibe we've felt from EVERY planet in the movie series except Coruscant and that place that shall not be named. Which might be the story anyway: both the Old Republic and the Empire are gone (as is the New Republic apparently), so most systems might've achieved a high level of autonomy and home-rule. It even took me a few minutes to realize the planet that got hyper-blasted wasn't Coruscant. Once the plot made it clear it was some _other_ Trantor-like planet the New Republic had set up shop on, well, I didn't particularly care. (And I guess we explain away JJ Abrams' complete misunderstanding of the immense "big"ness of space by saying whazername's bar was on a planet in the same star system as the New Republic capitol?) I'm not unconvinced this Star Wars story didn't take place in a toy-sized galaxy. It was fun, but....

Thanks, everybody. Ran into a bug last night... A universe-breaking NullRef I've never been able to explain with "Thing B" station. We'll get into what exactly it is this evening when I post the update, but I'm rather convinced the place is haunted. Or cursed.

Personally I'd be happy with an Admiral Pellaeon cameo of some sort. Just a nod to the best of the SW:EU (and the 3 books every fan should read).